# Easement poles
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 17, 2000, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678 "2000-04-17T01:16:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@29.5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/29.5)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2000, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/1 "2000-04-17T01:16:00Z")
Why do so mant people feel compelled to nail objects to telephone poles? And then insist that they own the one in the backyard?
Granted, some private properties DO own the pole, but not everybody, everywhere.
This has been bugging me for awhile now, so any insight would be exteremely helpful.
```
Thanks.
```
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### Author:  [@LordDenning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordDenning)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/2 "2000-04-17T02:54:00Z")
Can you get an easement on an easement?
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### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/3 "2000-04-17T03:15:00Z")
Um… If you mean, like, flyers and stuff, maybe nailing them to a telephone pole is batter than nailing them to, oh I dunno, the side of your house?
If that’s not what you mean, I’m sorry, but I can only make out that as a possibility…
* * *
Yer pal,
Satan
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One week, one day, 1 hour, 5 minutes and 26 seconds.
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### Author:  [@29.5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/29.5)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2000, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/4 "2000-04-18T00:22:00Z")
well,granted nailing things to the side of the house is generally not a good idea, but those things are awful to have to climb around when I have to work on the pole.
( not to mention they collect bees & wasps)
That and the fact that you have to get a pole attatchment permit to put anything on there, legally…
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2000, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/5 "2000-04-18T00:26:00Z")
Bah, hah, hah. I spent most of last week applying for juint use agreements with several semi-local utilities. Your engineering/permitting departments are nearly as useless as the local municipal authorities.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/6 "2000-04-18T00:31:00Z")
Oh, wait. I see you are a CATV guy. That’s right, your company doesn’t own any poles.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2000, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/7 "2000-04-18T01:04:00Z")
Quit bitching **29.5**! So you end up with a few rips in your legs. You should be glad to live in a society where the common chucklehead has access to nails and staple guns, and doubly happy that you live in a universe where metal oxidizes so easily. Just because you think you are soooo special because you have to climb the poles in order to do something as trivial as your _job_, doesn’t mean that the rest of us should actually think about what we are doing. I mean, come on, do you really expect us to believe that your health and safety is more important than the Shlitwitzel’s tag sale?
* * *
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2000, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/8 "2000-04-18T01:09:00Z")
I was just re-reading my posts and they seem a bit flippant. That was not my intention, I apologize if you have taken them that way.
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### Author:  [@29.5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/29.5)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/9 "2000-04-19T22:04:00Z")
No offense taken UncleBeer. I’m just a lowly subcontractor, anyway. I was just wondering why other people can’t be moe considerate, y’know.
O.K. Since the for sale sign is more important than my job, is the guy who nails it up there liable if I fall off and break my leg 'cause I stepped on his nail or caught my foot on his clothesline?
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2000, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easement-poles/10678/10 "2000-04-19T22:14:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> is the guy who nails it up there liable if I fall off and break my leg
The lawyers of the board may correct me shortly - but while he may not be financially responsible, I believe he is required to arrange for Mrs. Shlitwitzel to break your fall.
## Actually, I don’t think it is so much a matter of people being inconsiderate as much as them being clueless. Most of the time you are climbing they are at work. What times they do see line work being done a good percentage of the time someone is up there in a cherry picker. So the Shlitwitzels tack up their garage sale sign without even realizing the pain in the Shlit they are.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…